*Images with asterisks* and text below in italics from The Official Transformers web site:If he can’t confuse the Decepticons with a burst of magnetic smoke, he’ll blast them with his Chain Bolter!

Decepticons beware, because this Smokescreen figure has the sneaky skills and big-time weaponry to take them down! If he can’t deceive his enemies with battle tricks, he’ll blast them with his powerful chain bolter weapon! When the battle calls for speed, convert him to race car mode. Keep converting him back and forth so his Decepticon enemies can’t keep up!

Includes figure and accessory. Legion Class Series 3 001 Smokescreen. Ages 5 and up. Transformers and all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro.

In season two of "Transformers Prime", a new character was introduced name Smokescreen. This young Autobot was a hot shot who idolized Optimus Prime. Far from the "annoying young Autobot" character mold, Smokescreen proved himself to be an important member of the Autobot team who learned his lessons well from episode to episode. However, his appearance was late enough in the show that no figure of the character was released outside Japan in 2012.

In 2013, fans finally got their chance to have a Smokescreen figure in both Deluxe and Legion scales. This review focuses on the Legion Class figure representing the character.

Robot Mode:
To accomodate the smaller size and complexity level of most characters, the Legion Class toys often sacrifice some fealty to the original design. In Smokescreen's case, most of his critical details are there including the doors on his back, the round armor on his shoulders, his torso being "broken up" parts of the vehicle mode and legs with armor pieces over the knees and a long head/face design. However, the proportions of these details differ from the CG model used in the television show. For instance, on the television show the front end of the car shrinks a bit to form his torso, but here it (of course) remains full size. This is in contrast to his arms, which seemingly grow and sprout out of nowhere on the CG model, but here they are much smaller since they have to tuck into the area behind the door panels in vehicle form. The proportions may not be CG accurate, but they work well. His rather bulky looking torso conveys a sense of power that works for the figure.

Smokescreen is cast in silver and gunmetal grey plastic. The silver is the color used on most of the figure, with the gunmetal found on smaller parts such as his shoulder joints, wheels and waist. Both colors look great and have a nice metallic shine to them. Smokescreen has a surprising amount of paint detail on him. It seems the designers are aiming for more and more paint applications on figures of this size (which kind of makes sense since they don't have to use as much paint as say, a Voyager Class figure would need to achieve great effect). Blue paint is found on the arms, chest and the sides of his feet. A blue and red pattern with the number "38" is used on the doors on his back that form his "wings". The face is painted silver with really tiny blue eyes. Silver and gunmetal paint are used on his chest and legs respectively to provide additional detail. Overall, I'm very impressed by the deco pattern on this figure.

There are six points of articulation on this figure including ball joints at the shoulders and hips along with the ability for his feet to move (mostly as part of his transformation scheme). Smokescreen comes with a "Chain Bolt" blaster which he can hold as a blaster or use a different peg on the weapon to hold as a blade weapon. His weapon has a total of four pegs, allowing you to attach additional weaponry as well as two holes (one on the side and another in the barrel) to connect other weapons. He can also store a Cyberverse weapon using the hole on his back as well.

Transformation to Vehicle Mode:

Detach the weapon if attached.

Push the feet together.

Swing the back panel up so it covers the head.

Swing each half of the chest up.

Swing each arm back behind the doors/wings.

Swing the doors/wings together, connecting the arms.

Swing the legs up and swing the feet up.

The weapon can be attached to the roof of the vehicle or the sides.

Vehicle Mode:
While some sacrifices were made to his aesthetic for the robot mode, Smokescreen's vehicle mode looks fantastic. Like his onscreen counterpart, he has a curved front end with the sides raised up slightly containing "tear drop" shaped headlights. This leads to the cabin section which is also curved, leading to high rear wheel wells and a distinctive spoiler that has vertical panels that angle inward. It's a very sleek looking vehicle and exactly the type of vehicle you'd expect a young hot shot to take on. Even better, it matches up very nicely with the look of the vehicle as seen on the television show!

In this form, all the deco patterns on Smokescreen consolidate. His blue colors can be found on the center of the hood, the top of the cabin section, the back and over the rear wheels. Red and blue make a checker pattern with the number "38" on the doors and a red Autobot symbol adorns the middle of the car hood. For those curious, the red and blue colors along with the number "38" are all nods to the original G1 Smokescreen, who featured those two colors and that number in his deco.

Smokescreen has three holes in this form intended for use with Cyberverse weapons. One sits on top of the vehicle and the other two are on the sides, near the rear wheel wells. Add enough weaponry and he can look really crazy, but it's kind of fun all at the same time.

Final Thoughts:
Smokescreen's robot mode looks a bit awkward in terms of proportions, but he still manages to look good. His vehicle mode is spot on however and looks fantastic. I dig his weapon (and I'm thankful it's an original sculpt and not a reused weapon from last year). Add to that the ability to connect tons of extra weaponry and this is one fun figure in a small package!